Wyst: Alastor 1716

Speculative fiction is a broad umbrella category of narrative fiction referring to any fiction story that includes elements, settings and characters whose features are created out of imagination and speculation rather than based on attested reality and everyday life. That encompasses the genres of science fiction, fantasy, science fantasy, horror, alternative history, and magic realism.

On Wyst, World 1716 of the Alastor Cluster, millions of people live
together in harmony, work only a few hours a week, and share the fruits
of their labor equally. Wyst seems a Utopia. But the Connatic, knowing
better than to take Utopia at face value, one day decides to
investigate – a decision that may cost him his life.

(updated 2011-12-17)

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John Holbrook "Jack" Vance (1916–2013) was an American mystery, fantasy and science fiction writer. Though most of his work has been published as by Jack Vance, he also wrote 11 mystery novels using his full name John Holbrook Vance, three under the pseudonym Ellery Queen, and once each using the pseudonyms Alan Wade, Peter Held, John van See, and Jay Kavanse.

Vance won the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 1984 and he was a Guest of Honor at the 1992 World Science Fiction Convention in Orlando, Florida. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America made him its 14th Grand Master in 1997 and the Science Fiction Hall of Fame inducted him in 2001, its sixth class of two deceased and two living writers.more)

/>Among his awards for particular works were: Hugo Awards, in 1963 for The Dragon Masters, in 1967 for The Last Castle, and in 2010 for his memoir This is Me, Jack Vance!; a Nebula Award in 1966, also for The Last Castle; the Jupiter Award in 1975; the World Fantasy Award in 1990 for Lyonesse: Madouc. He also won an Edgar (the mystery equivalent of the Nebula) for the best first mystery novel in 1961 for The Man in the Cage.

A 2009 profile in The New York Times Magazine described Vance as "one of American literature’s most distinctive and undervalued voices." He died at his home in Oakland, California, May 26, 2013, aged 96.

Selected works

Early novels:

Big Planet (written in 1948) The Rapparee (1949) Gold and Iron (1952) The Houses of Iszm (1953, a novella) Clarges (1955) The Languages of Pao (1956) The Miracle Workers (1957, a novella) The Dragon Masters (1961, a novella) The Blue World (1963, novella version The Kragen) Space Opera (1964) The Last Castle (1965, a novella) Emphyrio (1967)

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